Star Wars Free to Play weekend!!!

YAY!!!!


Star Wars: The Old Republic | Weekend Pass Free Trial

Edit: 25gb download!!! !

 

that didn't take long

 

NICE +rep be getting on this game

 

I've been playing since January, got a Gunslinger at level 50, a Jedi Sage at 30 and a Commando at 14.

Join the Infinite Empire server; it's a west coast-located PvP server, and one of the more well-populated ones. I made the mistake of starting off on a light-population server for my first character...it's just not busy enough. Late nights on weekdays, which is usually when I play, it's almost empty. This server is always nice and populated. We can get an NBR guild started or something.

Anyway, a bit of useful information for picking out your character. The first choice you'll make is Empire or Republic faction. I recommend Republic, because that's what I'm playing. You can always make more characters on the other side. Population seems fairly balanced on this server between the factions. Each side has equivalent classes to each other, so gameplay balance issues are minimal.

There are four main classes per faction, and each of those classes can choose one of two advanced classes, and each advanced class has three skill trees. While you're stuck with your advanced class for good as soon as you choose it, your skill trees are more open to negotiation; you can put skill points in different ones, and you can "forget" your chosen skills and re-assign the points to different trees, for a fee.

A basic breakdown of the Republic classes, with their advanced class options:

• Trooper - equips heavy armor and blaster rifles, ranged combat.
  • Commando - replaces blaster rifle with an assault cannon, more damage-focused. Also has a healing skill tree.
  • Vanguard - adds a shield generator to the heavy armor. Can become a tank with aggro-drawing abilities, or focus on damage.

• Smuggler - medium armor + blaster pistol. Very versatile, different ways to build this class.
  • Scoundrel - closer-range combat with a single blaster pistol and offhand shotgun. Also has a healing skill tree and stealth abilities.
  • Gunslinger - the purest long-range DPS class. Wields two blaster pistols and some of the greatest damage at long distances.

• Jedi Knight - melee-focused, lightsaber + medium armor by default.
  • Sentinel - equips two lightsabers and sticks with medium armor; pure melee DPS. More or less a melee equivalent to the Gunslinger.
  • Guardian - keeps a single lightsaber but upgrades to heavy armor. Can become a tank or DPS depending on skill trees.

• Jedi Consular - more Force-oriented than the Knight, but still uses a lightsaber. Light armor only.
  • Sage - almost entirely Force-based combat; Force power range increased from 10 meters to 30, and healing skills.
  • Shadow - upgrades to a double-bladed lightsaber/saberstaff and gains stealth abilities, but Force powers are restricted to 10 meter range

It's a really fun game and I hope you guys try it out and join for good.

 

Boooo Republican! I'm on Mask of Nihilus which started out heavy, but has dropped to moderate. I'd switch to another server, but I've made some nice friends. I got a Level 50 Powertech, 34 Operative, and ~25 Gunslinger.

 

it took all night to download, (midnight to 8 am)
signed all up and now it will not let me sign in.... i mean i can sign in through the program, but the play button to launch is greyed out

 

I know the feeling; my 50 Gunslinger was on Hedarr Soongh, which is all but abandoned now. Hopefully they'll implement some sort of transfer system sooner rather than later.

You created an account, but did you sign up for the free trial? It's not an automatic thing.

 

yes i did, i just had to wait 10 min and agree to ea and bioware in launcher.

 

This game has the best levelling experience out of all the MMO's I've tried.

It doesn't feel like you're grinding at all because the quests and voice acting is so well done.

The PvP is well balanced minus Sages/Sorcerers, which are at 26.5% played (nerf bat next patch). Everything else is fairly even, except for the Snipers at 4.9%~ last time I checked a couple weeks ago. Sample size was 5 servers of classes played by a third party fan site study.

Anyways, playing a Bounty Hunter Mercenary and I love it. Most of my time has been spent on healing in PvP. The neat thing about this game is that you get companions ...not only 1, but several ...healers, tanks, ranged dps, melee dps, so you can level as heal spec if using a dps or tank companion.

Best part of all - YOU DON'T FARM! That's right - you use your companions to pick herbs automatically, craft your alchemy potions, etc. You can also use them to clean out junk from your inventory.

Excellent game so far.

I like it better than WoW. The only thing it's missing is AB/AV-like PvP maps.

Haven't raided yet since I'm only level 40 (there's 50 levels).

Would recommend this game to anyone.

Just some caution - game download + patch is like 25GB.

I'm on the Veela server (which has a majority of Quebec/Ontario/Virginia/New York) under the same name as my forum account if anyone has questions while I'm in-game.

Next patch is the PvP patch with rated Battlegrounds. Bioware is taking a non-eltist approach and will be offering everyone a start-up PVP set achievable by any fresh/new level 50's, so there's barely any gear gap and only skilled teams. This is a very good approach, b/c if you're a skilled PvP'er, why would you want to steam roll fresh 50's in greens?

If you're a healer, I'll break it down for you:

Mercenary/Trooper = Holy Paladin (with earthshield and natures switfness like shaman spells)
Sorc/Sage = Disc Priest (very powerful right now in BG's due to an incredible amount of CC and lifegrip)
Operative/Smuggler = Resto Druid (most mobile healer, but least played since lack of group buffs I believe)

*Note: The ratio between jedi and sith are like 1:3 on most servers. BG's are mirrored too, so if you want a good PvP experience, choose sith. Plus, sith have a better story overall (majority of players claim this). Choosing sith also leads to finding heroic/instance groups without spamming LFG for hours as you would playing jedi.

As for DPS, I haven't studied them thoroughly enough to compare to WoW classes.

Lastly, this game requires almost double the keybindings of those in WoW (at least for my friend and I), so if you love the game, purchasing a mouse like the Razer Naga Epic would be ideal. I'm level 40 and I've run out of keys and mouse bindings.

 

You can't assume that has anything to do with balance. It's very likely a matter of preference.

 

Actually, it's the only class that's overpowered right now. That's why everyone plays it. Best healer in the game. Some of the best CC's. Sprint to get out of bad situations. Shields. Lifegrip. The sorc is the king of healing right now.

Sorc > Merc > Ops (best to worst healers)

 

That very well may be- but you can't just blindly deduce that from player preferences. You'll have to make that assessment based on a game theory model and math.

 

It's called FOTM (Flavour of the Month).

There are countless threads and forum talk regarding re-rolling for the simple fact that a mediocre sorcerer can do better than a professional non-sorcerer because of how powerful they in comparison.

A month after the game released, statistics showed most of the classes being balanced, however once people figured out and witnessed how powerful they were, the 15%~ increased to 26.5%~.

This happens with all MMO's.

People play what's the most powerful for a competitive edge, not because they like the class. Same thing happens in WoW.

 

The companion system is cool, but it could use some work. My Gunslinger, for example, is pure DPS. No tanking or healing, and limited to medium armor. Naturally, a healer would be very useful, but my healer is the very last companion I get, so I'm somewhat screwed until Hoth, which is 3/4 of the way through leveling. And my Jedi Sage, a healer class, gets a healer for the second companion on Nar Shaddaa.

No, don't do that! Stop skewing the population ratios even further.

Seriously, though; a more balanced faction ratio will improve PvP for both sides. On an Empire-heavy server, Imperial players end up playing Huttball against other Imps all day.

tl;dr the Galactic Republic needs your help!

No, Sith Sorcerers really are just straight-up better. Check out the SWTOR class and balance forums if you really want to read up on the specifics.

 

Haha. Well now they're doing mirrored faction warzones battles (sith vs sith) (Battlegrounds for people who haven't played it), so all 3 maps rotate quite well now. I only enjoy hutball if I'm with a couple friends in the group because most pugs just farm kills and never go for the objective

Did about 3-4 hours of PvP tonight ...had a great time. Got almost 1000 WZ marks from it too (me+3 others from a PvP guild) We faced team where 7 out of 8 players were sorcerers and I was CC'd for over 50% of the game ...very unpleasant lol, but besides that one game, it was a good time.

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What class/spec is everyone playing btw?

 

I've got a 50 Smuggler > Gunslinger with full Sharpshooter tree, a 31 Jedi Consular > Sage with almost entirely healing tree, and a 15 Trooper > Commando that I'm putting points mostly into the DPS tree.

 

If they want to improve the faction ratios, they need to improve armor looks too, especially endgame. I thought Empire was mediocre... Republic armor is just awful!

 

Yeah, I took a peek at the endgame Consular gear...ugliest pixels I have ever seen in a game. The Smuggler stuff looks awesome, though; the hat looks like the one from the intro cinematic, and frankly, it's the only Smuggler headgear that doesn't look awful lol. And the duster jacket is pretty awesome too.

Apparently, though, they're going to make endgame gear mod-based, so you can extract the mods and use them in any other customizable gear if you prefer the looks of some other armor.

 

I gave up on PVP soon after the patch that changed Ilum. Mostly because fps dropped drastically so that was no fun... Then there's the warzones that were too imbalanced teams-wise and took too long to queue. A sane person can only play Huttball so many times.

As for class, my main is a Powertech. For flashpoints I mainly tank so I go with a Shield Tech 31/8/2 build. Before I took a break I started using the Carolina Parakeet so I could dps in raids, but it's barely enough dps for the Infernal Council boss fight so I decided to go 5/5/31 Pyrotech. My other two significantly leveled alts are a Sharpshooter Gunslinger and Medicine Operative.

The Inquisitor isn't much better, but at least it's not... fluffy. The Smuggler one looks okay... I just don't get the cape. The armor for the Imperial Agent and Juggernaut I think are the best and make sense. I hated my Supercommando armor with the Rakata eyes and the baby carrier body armor. It's like the artists started taking inspiration from WoW once they didn't have source material to adhere to.

I'm looking forward to ripping out the mods from endgame armor without losing the bonuses. I've almost got a complete set of the Orange Hydra armor including belt and bracers. I was hoping to give it to my Trooper when I rolled one, but I found out that when you sell opposing faction gear over the Nar Shadaa GTN, it's converted to the equivalent armor for the class' faction. So now I just need to decide whether I'll use DPS mods or Tank mods since I only DPS in raids.

 

I wasn't impressed, Star Trek Online is far superior, and generally a much more "fun" game. I'll be sticking to that for now.

 

shooo trekkie shoo!

j/k =-)

I played ToR from launch, but stopped playing about a month ago. The problem with the game and server for ME, and my OPINION, is that its a first-time MMO for ALOT of players. These players are so utterly terrible at playing, it makes group content undoable. After two months of recruiting for our guild, we have around 30 people capable of playing their toons. Mind you, we are on two servers (both sides on each) our current total members are roughly 300.
Before im called elitist, i literally mean people who stand in the fire. who see the giant, targeting reticule on th eground, the voice over of the boss saying "im going to shoot you with my missile now!" and giant red text across their screen, yet they STILL stand there and look at it, like 'hey gaize, check it out, its puurty".
Worse still though, "i dont like the look of the <item> so i use <way worse item from level 20>" *sigh*
we are still hoping for server xfers, so we can our capable members to gather up.

As for STO, i hear ya man. i <3 my STO =-)

 

Been interested in this game for a bit now.......great link, gonna try and see if worth the buy.

 

Remember; Infinite Empire server, Republic side.

 

It's a pretty good game, i hope they keep the trial period permanently..like what blizzard does and expands it. That's how they are gonna attract new comers

 

Played WoW before then I signed up for SW:TOR. It was exciting at first with the voice-overs and cut-scenes but at about lvl 25-30, it gets old and I just realized its the same grind to max level in WoW. Missions are go here, do this, then report back to the mission giver. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway, I just signed up for Eve Online and man, THAT is a deep game!

 

@M11xDude

Are they the same missions over and over again or are they different ones, but the same general idea? I hated DCUO because they literally made you repeat the same missions over and over again to get good stuff.

 

There are repeatable daily missions, like Heroics (you get these on planets; they're like normal quests but require a party of 2 or more due to much tougher enemies), Flashpoints (raid-type missions that you launch from your faction's Fleet hub, much longer than Heroics and a source of awesome loot), Operations (real endgame raids, long and difficult), PvP daily objectives (win [n] Warzones, kill [n] enemies, etc.), and space missions. These daily missions are the best source of good gear, credits and XP.

But the "normal" quests, the kind you get on planets while you're doing your class quest, vary. Granted, there can only be so much variety, but you're not literally doing the same thing over and over. I've leveled one character to 50 and I'm in the process of leveling two others, and I'm not bored.

 

Every quest feels unique. They each have a very well done voice acting cinematic and the quests are easy to find on your map. Once you've completed the quest, you continue the voice acting cinematic.

You'll also be given the opportunity to select your replies and questions that you ask the quest NPC's and they'll respond based on your selection, which is quite interactive.

These quests are not like WoW, where you have to kill 100 boars to get a 0.1% drop. They involve bounties, sabotage, rescues, military operations, assassinations, vengeance, etc. Best quests I've ever done in any MMO to date. Hell - I've even done quests that wouldn't reward XP due to me being a higher level just so I could be part of the story - I NEVER do that with any other game because I feel it's a waste.

--

Just got Centurion PvP rank ...Battlemaster here I come

By the way, patch notes are released ....it's massive - Check it out whoever is currently playing.

Patch Notes:
http://www.swtor.com/test-center/patchnotes

nVidia 296.10 WHQL Driver Warning with SWTOR:
Recent driver is showing poor performance in SWTOR. I've lost about 7~ FPS in Warzones (Battlegrounds). This includes stuttering.

Just FYI. I'm going to have to rollback.

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Edit: Aww, they nerfed me. Making merc healing cost more and supercharged gas got nerfed by 50%. Sorc got their mana return sacrifice ability nerfed too. At least the unpopular ops healer got buffed - they needed it.

 

Looks like the Parakeet build has become defunct with the pyro changes. Also a little sad that cybertech doesn't get to make any of the augment mods. Really glad they finally got around to adding orange techstaffs and techblades for my companions.

 

On that note, why the hell do techblades have Aim as a primary stat? You smack your enemies around with it, sounds like Strength to me.

 

Us Bounty Hunters don't get Sith Warrior crew and we gotta hand down our armor to somebody. For some reason, Bioware got it in their minds to give us some flavor by giving us melee companions... I guess the damage comes from the tech part so they just need to aim it right!

 

Just to reiterate what I said earlier...make absolutely sure of your choice of advanced class when you pick it, because you're stuck with it for good. I went with Commando for my Trooper, but now that I'm level 20, I wish I had gone Vanguard instead.

 

I download and tried the game. It seem like there is no saving in this game, or save checkpoints either. When I exit / logout of the game then go back in later will I be at the point I last left?

So far I think it's a dumb game. Battling with light sabers stink. I'm not seeing anything good about this game except the nice cutscene movies. The combat action sucks, Batman game combat is way much better.

It's good I gave this game a trial run. It's not worth it to me; I wouldn't buy or subscribe to it either, and I might never buy the game. I especially don't like the controls in the game.

This game sucks...

 

New to MMO's, I assume?

Yes, everything you do is taken care of server-side. When you log in, you'll be in the same spot you left, no manual saving or checkpoints or anything like that.

As for combat, it's not an action RPG, and an MMORPG that played like that wouldn't be any good. MMO's just aren't like that. Combat is all about using the abilities you have available to you (and you will get many more of them as you level up). And with regards to lightsabers, if they were as awesome in this game as they are in the movies, there would be no Troopers, Smugglers, Bounty Hunters or Imperial Agents. Obviously MMO's aren't for you, but you can't say the game outright sucks.

 

Yeah, I'm new to subscription based games, and I don't like paying a subscription so I never buy these types of games. No WOW or Starcraft 2 either.

 

MMO's aren't for everyone, but what you witnessed in SWTOR is the playstyle of any MMO out there (WoW, Rift, WAR, etc.).

SC2 is not subscription based by the way

 

Oh for crying out loud... the armor just keeps getting uglier. 1.2 New Armor ModelsDulfy | Dulfy Actually the trooper armor looks decent, but what's with BioWare's love for all the hoses and pointy stuff... It all looks more medieval than futuristic.

 

I like the Sorc PVE and Bounty Hunter PVP sets from that link. Others are decent. Still better than WoW's re-coloured ugly sets in my opinion

 

They don't look bad, but I agree that most of them don't feel Star Wars. The Consular gear actually looks decent, though; unlike any of the current endgame Consular gear.

 

I thinks it's fine to have an opinion that traditional MMOs are terrible, SWTOR included.

Forcing others to agree with you is not appropriate, but having the opinion is just fine.

I would say that SWTOR certainly isn't terrible among traditionally designed MMORPGs, but the genre itself is getting very long in the tooth, and some fundamental design changes regarding basic interactivity need major rework across the whole genre.

 

Most of them are a step up from the current tier 1, but I guess some of the elements like helmets (fireman knight, smuggler ears) and butt flaps are tripping me up. I think the best in there is the sorcerer pve, but only the female... not sure how it'll look on male.

 

The problem with SWTOR is that it was so hyped. In the end it really didn't do much to further the genre. I found myself bored playing it. That's rarely been the case for me in MMO's. It just felt like I had renewed my subscription to WoW.

I got more enjoyment out of the Tera beta. MMO-FOs TERA - MMO-FO: Focus Group! - YouTube

 

Your two sections there touch on what I've figured to be the two main weaknesses with the game. I've played most of the main MMOs out there over the last 12 years and even dabbled with design.

The second point first, server balance is a very big problem. WOW hasn't done anything assertive about it yet and I know for myself & several others, having been on an underpop side of an overpop server sucks. Having to pay to transfer characters especially multiple accounts just isn't practical. After 6 years I quit the game. What they need to do, and SWTOR is going to be in exactly the same state if they don't address it, is make a system that rewards or penalizes based on server pop imbalance. Then institute a free transfer system from high to low. Thus player populations will balance dynamically as a portion of the player pop seeks the enhanced gains on underdog sides or to avoid reduced gains on zerg realms.

The first area on healing. Trooper/BH & Smug/Agent healers have a low numerical, fast regen dynamic like a WOW rogue. This means they are throttled on burst healing - cast 5-7 in a row and you are low and your regen also slows with lower pool value. Sage/Sorc have a larger pool value and can throw 10-12 in a row before hitting low pool value & reduced regen. The other dynamics are as you said for each respective class type.

What I see this game lacking for healing, is a click cast interface like the player mods in WOW provided. WOWs success over a long period owes a large measure to the improvements of ergonomic gameplay provided by their player mod system. With respect to healing, the average player will find healing more tedious than tanking or DPS - the sheer amount of target switching comparatively over the long run drives many players to shun healing and play tanks or DPS. The click cast mods helped close that gap, allowing the player to use a raid interface to cast spells without changing their main target. Frankly any newer MMO not incorporating that type of interface advance is not current on the technology of the genre.

That includes this game, and Rift. Rift had some good ideas, but they out-WOW'd WOW in some fashions that weren't acceptable (longer rep grinds for instance). But what killed it to me was waiting hours to find a healer if I wasn't playing one myself, it made instances undoable for practical application if you couldn't play for many hours at a stretch. Population declined and I stuck a fork in it. I see the same problem cropping up in SWTOR, exacerbated by being on the Republic side which seems to have a lower pop. Even if they put in a LFG system, healers will still be the hardest role to fill thus being the cockblock on getting a group going. This game will be worse in that respect, as the healer ratio needed is 1/4 vs 1/5 for WOW & Rift.

In WOW healers were not the short factor, tanks were. That was/is a problem they could have solved by making a couple of DPS classes specs capable of tanking 5 man heroics (ie, Demo Lock, Beast Hunter & Enhance Shaman) thus converting the too numerous DPS players to potentially solving their own long que issues by having an alt tank spec.

Rift & SWTOR healers have to constantly target switch so for the non-elite player its more than they are willing to put up with long term. Healers wind up being short, and overall player frustration mounts as you waste hours not getting necessary FPs done to farm gear to get into higher end game content. Would be nice if developers were more proactive & reactive in fixing issues like this when they are obviously demonstrated by their competitors failings.

[Last note on rant; Something I found annnoying about the changes in WOW that helped propel me from the game was the class changes with the last Xpack. Every class wound up with a dynamic where they had to build up 3 or 5 points to execute some major ability. Every class thus became like the rogue class building combo points. Its a play style you may love or hate; or just play different classes for a different game experience. When you make all the classes play the same, you just made your game far less entertaining, even frustrating or boring depending on your view of that common dynamic they installed to each class. For that matter, tanks & healers were all made to play much the same as well, it was a truly horrible change that has cost them millions in lost revenue.]

 

Maybe the Infinite Empire server is just lucky, but population there is fairly well-balanced in terms of factions and classes. I've never had to look that hard for a healer, tank or DPS for flashpoints or 4-man heroics.

As for Commando/Scoundrel vs. Sage healing, you make a good point about resources; Commando is limited to 12 ammo and Scoundrel to 100 or 110 energy, but the Sage instantly goes from 100 to 500 Force just by choosing the Sage advanced class, and can further increase to 600 with two skill points. But the Sage also has no ability to immediately regenerate significant amounts of Force, other than Noble Sacrifice, which costs health. The Commando has a reload skill that instantly replenishes 6 ammo cells, and the Smuggler has something similar.

My Sage is pretty much a pure healer, and I've found myself very effective in PvE, including heroics and flashpoints, but almost useless in PvP.

 

On your point about server balance and all issues related to it, this may be off topic to SW:TOR BUT this is one of the reasons why I LOVE Eve Online. Everyone is just on one server! No different realms. Just one big box where everyone is at. Not having to ask a friend: "Hey, what server are you on?" is such a big plus for me.

 

Former WoW player here too. This is exactly how I felt when I played SW:TOR. It felt fresh in the beginning with the cut-scenes, excellent voice acting and player choices available when talking to NPCs.

However, later on in the game, it felt so much like WoW trying to get to max level. I quit at about level 30 or so.

 

SWTOR announced on Facebook ANOTHER free trial weekend this week if anyone missed this past one.

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I started an imperial agent alt and got him to 10 ...story is excellent so far, feels like a James Bond movie - Decided to go operative since I want a mobile healer.